When Did Entrepreneurship Start | A Brief History of Entrepreneurship

When you see the successful entrepreneur like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, you may often get curious when did entrepreneurship start? Who was the first entrepreneur? Well, the Origin of entrepreneurship is quite old. Believe it or not, the first evidence of entrepreneurs can be tracked down back to nearly 20,000 years ago.

An entrepreneur is literally an agent of change. Entrepreneurs often go against the traditional process, social conventions, and even laws. Today in this When did entrepreneurship start article, we are going to discuss you everything you need to know about innovation of entrepreneurship. Let’s get started.

When did entrepreneurship start?

When you see the famous entrepreneurs list, we think that it’s quite a modern concept. But you will be surprised to know the reality.

In the Holy Bible, there are few passages in which a term has been used named “Canaanite.” This word is really close to “merchant” and “traders.” These legendary Canaanites appeared in the north of the Hebrew kingdoms, the coastal land between Lebanon and Syria. So the history of the entrepreneur is more ancient than we thought. So let’s see stages of evolution of entrepreneurship.

Earliest Period

As we found by researching the history that Marco Polo, a famous Italian merchant used trade routes to the Far East. Meanwhile, he is perhaps the first entrepreneur in the modern sense of the world.

In several researched, the historian found that he had to sign a mutual contract to sell his goods. A part of that contract they took a loan at the rate of 22.5% including insurance. So that was the first evidence of taking the risk.

Capitalist was the risk bearer, and the adventurer bears all the physical and emotional risks in trading. And the merchant-adventurer sold the goods successfully; the profit was eventually divided among them. The capitalist got the maximum part up to 75%), and merchant-adventurer took the remaining 25 %.

The region of Arabia encompasses all of the smaller Persian Gulf States, modern-day Saudi Arabia, and to the east. Arabia got considerable strategic value and traded silk of the Indus valley and various spices. As expected, many of the nomadic Arabs had involved in the trade. Meanwhile, caravans of merchants were a common scene.

Middle Age

The Middle Ages weren’t completely as the paragon of merchant opportunity. The Middle East, as well as Mediterranean Europe, plays a significant role in the Middle Ages history of entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, by the medieval era, Chinese civilization was not only one developed in merchant, both Christian Europe, and the Islamic world also plays a vital role.

Not surprisingly, there were several successful entrepreneurs in the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was literally a blank slate. They spent an era of unbelievable uncertainty.

The noteworthy entrepreneur of the medieval era was the church. Perhaps, it was the largest economic pioneer in Europe. For fear of God, Christians paid their tithes to fathers’ even when they were in economic hardship. So the typical entrepreneur of that time was the priest.

17th Century

The risk factor of entrepreneurship developed completely in the 17th century. As we found, John law, a merchant from France is of the entrepreneur in that period. He was the founder of the royal bank of France. Also, established Mississippi Company both had an excellent franchise to trade between this motherland France and the new world. Later, Monopoly on French trade had been the collapse of the company.

However, at the beginning of the 17th century, Richard Cantillon understood Law’s mistake. He was a famous English economist at that time. Meanwhile, he judged entrepreneur as a risk taker. He observed the craftsmen, farmers, and merchants deeply. And realize they were buying at a certain price and sell at an uncertain price. As a result, they were operating a risk.

18th Century

In the century, the entrepreneur had differentiated from the capital provider. That means the person with capital was distinguished from the one who needed capital.

Meanwhile, 200 years of entrepreneurship is hugely fuelled by markets and machines. One of the core reasons was the industrialization revolution throughout the world.

Capitalism entrenched in societies enormously around the world. Hence, the theory of capitalism is established in Adam Smith’s famous book the Wealth of Nations in 1776. He destroyed the entire idea of typical mercantilism.

Eli Whitney, American inventor prominent for inventing the cotton gin. He was one of the key inventors of the Industrial Revolution. Likewise, Thomas Edison, the famous inventor of many inventions. He was the one who applied new technology. He is one of the well-known entrepreneurs of the 18th Century.

19th & 20th Centuries

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the entrepreneurship process has viewed as an economic perspective. The entrepreneur manages and organizes an enterprise for his or her gain. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs were not differentiated from managers.

The materials consumed in the business for the services he employs, land and for the capital he requires. However, Andrew Carnegie is one of the leading examples of this definition. He comes from a poor Scottish family, shaped the American Steel Industry entirely.

Post World War II Entrepreneurship

After World War II, the concept entrepreneurship started to change for several reasons. First and foremost, the economy was rapidly global. Massive economies like the USA marketplace became in microeconomic factors. Some company such as General Electric, Holiday Inns, IBM made a huge profit.

Modern Entrepreneurship

Today, entrepreneurs are the racketeers and pioneers who shaped the world. In China, a country of a common economy, they are valued tremendously and encourage innovating a new thing.

In modern time, we found some iconic and renowned entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bozes.

Final word

In a nutshell, entrepreneurs are the pioneer who can change the world. Why Entrepreneurship Is Important To Economic Development Goal? Since the very beginnings of history, they have been ruled by the market forces. As the years went by, the concept entrepreneurship changed drastically, but the main reason remained unchanged.

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